This is an end view of a strip of decking milled from the leftovers from the covering boards and a few other large pieces of wood . All of the strips are milled at the same time , so that their dimensions will be identical .The strips are also milled so that the grain is oriented vertically to minimize expansion and contraction  . A small notch is also milled on one edge ( visible on the top left ) , that will later become the deck seam . There are a lot of pieces that make up the deck this way . A more common approach in production boats is to cover the deck with eight inch wide boards , and cut fake seams into the wide boards . The problem with this method is that wide boards tend to move with changes in humidity . Eventually every third or fourth seam starts to crack . ---Back to the benefiting the production process  rather than the product . 

The individual strips are nailed to the previous strip every four inches with stainless steel nails , and nailed diagonally to the framework at every carling . The advantage of this method is that there will be no plugs or any other visible fastenings in the decking . Because the deck is nailed from the outside in knowing where to start , and how wide to make that first little triangular shaped piece at the outside is the tricky part . The plywood straight edge is used to make sure that the strips are all running straight as the deck goes on , and the block plane is used to take off a shaving here and there . Since it is a curved surface being covered with rectangular strips the odd adjustment is needed to keep things running straight .

It was decided to maximize the silencing of the engines . This entailed making enough room under the back deck to accommodate the large mufflers and at the same time provide enough room for two fifty gallon fuel tanks , while at the same time allowing reasonable access to the rudder stuffing boxes and steering gear without having to remove the tanks every time that a stuffing box had to be tightened .This entailed designing custom gas tanks that will provide clearance from the back hatch .

    With two V 8 engines there are four exhaust outlets on the engines , but four pipes coming through the transom would make it look more like a rocket ship than a boat . I also drew up two exhaust collectors that will direct the exhaust down the sides where the pipes can also be hidden .

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Last modified: 04/19/03